Practices with Promise Success Story

Submitted By: Lale Cilenti, Palo Verde College

Testing Challenges at a Small, Remote College/Consortium

Type of Practice: Data & Accountability

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The Challenge

There were three issues our college faced with pre and post testing of our students.1. The testing lab has fifteen stations and some of our ESL classes have twenty or more students.2. The testing lab is only open nineteen hours a week with one part time staff.3. Some of the GED classes meet off-site because of the difficulty some students faced in being able to get to the campus. These are night students coming after work, and have transportation challenges, as the main college campus is several miles outside of town.

The Solution

1. Since there are enough work stations for every student in the ESL classroom, we have registered them for CASAS testing. The test proctor and the teacher work together to schedule test days and the proctor can test in the classroom.2. The testing center employee has been given flexibility to adjust the nineteen hour schedule weekly as needed. This allows for the smaller on site GED classes to meet during class time for testing. Other employees have also qualified as backup proctors for the testing center employee.3. For students meeting off site, we were able to purchase laptop computers to use for class work and testing stations. With collaboration between test proctor and teacher, the proctor can go to the students meeting

Outcomes

There has been more collaboration between the test proctor and teachers. The teachers are seeing more value in the testing process, and students benefit from the flexibility of testing services.

The Data

We have observed a drastic drop in the percentage of learners without a pre/post-test pair with more than 40 hour of instruction, based on the CASAS categories.